After the shootings at Clackamas Town Center and the Sandy Hook massacre of 20 elementary school children, we’ve been exploring various responses and approaches to preventing such violence in the future. The idea of early assessment and intervention was an aspect of prevention that came up briefly in our show about getting mental health care to transition age youth (16 -24). The basic idea is that along with reading tests grade school kids get, there would also be a formal behavior evaluation.

But what would that look like? Who would do it? How early would it start? What are the benefits? We’ll ask those questions and more of Jeffrey Sprague, from the University of Oregon, one of the principal researchers in the area. And we’ll check in with one of the early adopters of this idea in Corvallis to see how it’s working there.

What questions do you have about a school-wide screening for behavior problems?